Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Seton Hall women fall to St. John's, 51-45, in second-round game in Big East Tournament

anne-donovan-tourney-hall.jpg

Seton Hall coach Anne Donovan, who is leading for the WNBA's Connecticut Sun after the season, led the Pirates to five regular-season conference victories, their most since 2006-07.
(Photo by David Butler II/USA Today Sports)

HARTFORD, Conn. – What has been a renaissance season for the Seton Hall women’s basketball program ended Saturday afternoon, and so, too, did the three-year stint of coach Anne Donovan.

Donovan, who took over a program in shambles and is leaving to coach the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, led the Pirates to an 11-20 mark this season, 5-11 in the Big East regular season.

The five conference victories are the school’s most since the 2006-07 season, and the 11 victories are the most since 2008-09. The Pirates notched upset wins over Rutgers and St. John’s, snapping losing streaks of 12 and 10 games to those schools, respectively, and won a Big East Tournament game for the first time since 2009.

"It’s really rewarding to know we were in a game that we could’ve won and made it to the next round," said Donovan following a hard-fought 51-45 second-round loss to St. John’s in the Big East Tournament at the XL Center on Saturday. "To look around in that locker room and see the young women who have worked so hard to turn this program around.

"It wasn’t me. It was the young women who bought into a coach who came in and was pretty hard on them. For me, it’s nostalgic to think about leaving. I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish."

Donovan finished with a 27-65 mark, 7-41 in the Big East. She called herself an "idiot" for scheduling so many tough out-of-conference opponents that reflect poorly on her record.

On Saturday, the Pirates took St. John’s (18-11) down to the final buzzer. They closed within 49-45 with 21 seconds left to play on a 3-pointer by senior sharpshooting guard Brittany Morris, but the Red Storm held on.

Donovan leaves the program with a solid foundation. The incoming coach will have a strong nucleus in sophomore point guard and ex-Shabazz High star Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark), 6-foot-2 freshman center Sidney Cook, a top 50 recruit who missed the season with a foot injury and University of Kentucky transfer Bra’Shey Ali, a 6-foot forward from Plainfield.

"Coach Donovan and her staff have molded everybody into competitors," said Morris, whose outside shooting will be tough to replace. "Whoever comes in here will see what she has built."

Said Donovan: "I’m very happy with my experience at Seton Hall. It’s about people and relationships. Beating Rutgers and St. John’s and beating Cincinnati in the first round (of the Big East Tournament) are memories we’re going to take away."